


Exchange

by talonyth



Category: Karneval
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talonyth/pseuds/talonyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was warm. It was the first thought Gareki has when he woke up, his eyes still closed. It was warm and it had a sweet scent, like cotton candy. It was a thing he was not used to yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exchange

It was warm. It was the first thought Gareki has when he woke up, his eyes still closed. It was warm and it had a sweet scent, like cotton candy. It was a thing he was not used to yet.

He opened his eyes slowly and noticed something moving. He knew it better, it was someone moving. It was still unreal, this very thing.

It was so quiet around them that Gareki could hear both his own but also very faint traces of another heartbeat. He really was there, after all. Every minute Gareki wondered how someone could be as Yogi was. He never met a person like him before, being both idiotic and enchanting at the same time. The only time Gareki remembered liking people like him was when he still used to stray the streets for prey he could steal the last piece of gold off. Yogi was the type to get his things stolen by a thief, he was naive, gullible, he was a perfect target.

Instead the only thing that Gareki stole, as Yogi himself said, was his heart. It seemed to work, too, that pick-up line. It terrified Gareki. He lost control over a situation he managed numerous times before. So many who were just like Yogi in the past, people he could rip off and leave behind again without having any problems nor any regrets. It was different with him. The more he tried to shake Yogi off ever since, the worse it became.

Gareki had to admit defeat, he had been beaten by a lame pick-up line from the most ridiculous 21-year old person he had ever met. He was upset at first, thought of it as preposterous to fall for a person who would never grow up, who kept behaving like a 6-year old, someone who couldn’t sleep by himself, someone who talked to machines only because they looked like little sheep, someone who ate more sweets than normal food, a person who smiled no matter what happened, who cheered everyone up by playing dumber than he really was.

Gareki quickly realized that Yogi pretended to be a bigger goofball than he was the more time he spent with him. He looked so tired sometimes, when no one was looking that Gareki wondered if he got too little sleep or if it was such an energy-draining thing to be happy all the time. He figured it was latter. Still, when he asked the blond just shook his head.

"I’m not really tired. I’m okay, don’t worry!"

He smiled again, so brightly that it kind of hurt in Gareki’s eyes but it felt like it was a lie. Not everything was, Gareki was sure that Yogi, in fact, was happy most of the time but he didn’t remember a single second he saw Yogi in a bad mood in front of others. Only when he thought he was alone. Originally, Gareki thought it simply piqued his interest when he saw Yogi like that, he wanted to know whether there were more sides of Yogi he didn’t know. But before long, he noticed it was not simply curiosity about someone else.

He wanted to know because he felt more for Yogi than he admitted. He wanted Yogi to trust him and to tell him how he felt. He wanted Yogi to rely on him. After all, they were going out even though Gareki barely knew what that meant at the beginning. He still had his difficulties with that.

"Ah, really? You’re not tired? Then how about watching a movie tonight?"

"Huh? Ah… sure… yeah, let’s!"

Yogi’s face brightened earnestly, Gareki could tell, because he never was the one proposing things they could do together after all, not even after Gareki heard Yogi’s confession and accepted it. Again, a thing he only started out of curiosity, a thing he couldn’t get out from anymore, though.

A few hours after, the blond dropped by Gareki’s room. He sat down on the floor, leaning his head onto the edge of the couch Gareki was sitting on.

"It’s okay, like that you have more space for yourself."

He was really considerate, almost painfully so. What an idiot. Like that, at the end of the movie, Gareki found Yogi to be fast asleep, breathing heavily but constantly.

"Not tired, my ass," the boy mumbled as he threw a blanket over Yogi.

From then on, it happened more frequently than Gareki expected that Yogi dropped by his room just to fall asleep right afterwards.

"I feel more at ease when you are there," Yogi one day said after he woke up. "I’ve been sleeping terribly lately when I’m by myself but… it seems like it’s okay when I’m here, with you."

"You always leave in the morning before I wake up."

"I know I’m a bother, that’s why. But I’m still glad you let me stay nonetheless."

"That’s so not like you, you dumbass."

Yogi chuckled lightly and looked up. Their eyes met but Gareki felt like he couldn’t fix his stare. How unusual.

"Is it okay for me to stay then?"

"Do whatever, I don’t care…"

Ever since, they have been sleeping together but also waking up together. It felt so unreal, still. Gareki wasn’t used to it but he felt like he wanted to be. He wanted to wake up next to Yogi, he wanted to see him every morning, every day, every night, too. He never expected things to turn out like that, he never expected himself to turn out like that. Circus was supposed to be a temporary measure until he would find a better solution of what to do, the people he met on the way were supposed to stay strangers to him, people he wouldn’t care about, people he could dispose of, leave and not come back but instead it turned out so very differently.

Realizing that, Gareki curled up, burying his face into Yogi’s chest. He never wanted to be dependent on anyone but he ended up being just that and it didn’t even feel like it was wrong when it clearly should. He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath when he felt Yogi tightening his grip around him.

"Gareki… are you awake?…"

He felt Yogi’s breath burning hot on his forehead as the blond spoke. His skin felt tingly, his stomach bubbly, Gareki almost felt like he was sick if he didn’t know better that he simply was happy.

"…I am."

"Good morning, then…" Yogi replied yawning which drowned his initial giggle. He ran his fingers through Gareki’s hair and occasionally curled it up his fingers into little locks, straightening them out right afterwards. Yogi played with his hair a lot and it felt pleasant and loving.

"Yeah, good morning."

His voice was barely a whisper as he replied and Gareki felt his cheeks being hot. He didn’t understand what part of good morning could make him blush like that. He felt his heart beating at a faster rate than it ever did before and it struck him like a bolt of lightning.

"Ah… I… guess I do love you…" he said subconsciously. He never intended to say it out aloud and panicked when he realized he did. He curled up even more, burying his face into his hands and bit his lip. He did not just say that. He did not. He—-

The rhythm of a heartbeat took all of his attention away. It was not his, it was Yogi’s. It was so loud, so clear that Gareki was surprised it was even possible for anyone else to hear it that loudly. Not only that, little by little, he noticed Yogi didn’t play with his hair anymore. His hands were trembling too much.

”..I love you too. So… so…. so much…” the blond whispered softly, his voice shaking as much as his hands did, as he pressed Gareki closer to him. He wrapped him so tightly that it robbed Gareki off any air he had left. Was Yogi… crying? He was prone to tears, he always cried, at any given occasion so it wouldn’t have been a big surprise but for some reason, Gareki still felt taken off-guard. The way Yogi said those words, the intensity they held, they shook Gareki at his core. He felt helpless in a situation where he never thought he’d be in, he never thought he would fall in love, let alone having someone fall for him yet it happened and even though it was a thing out of any plans he had ever come up with, it felt oddly enjoyable - almost like a situation he wanted to become normal.

Normal for someone as Yogi - someone so idiotic but still so enchanting, someone so childish but still so warm, someone so utterly ridiculous yet so wonderful simply because he had all those little annoying quirks about him - to stay by his side.

He figured he never stole Yogi’s heart despite him being such a brilliant prey and left him heartless without any hope left, it was a simple exchange in the end.


End file.
